


The Chappiest Chootykkah at the Owl Chouse

by disneydork, holographicbubbles



Series: Hooty [2]
Category: Cameos from Other Fandoms - Fandom, The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Cameos (Ariel (The Little Mermaid)/Moana), Cameos (Brave), Cameos (Disney), Cameos (Frozen (Kristanna/Ryder/Elsamaren)), Cameos (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Glimbow/Catradora/Scorfuma/Double Trouble)), Crack, F/F, Gen, Hooty - Freeform, The Owl House - Freeform, also we are still doing this because i'm an idiot who starts stuff they shouldn't - bubbles, chanukkah, why are we still doing this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:54:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27994851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disneydork/pseuds/disneydork, https://archiveofourown.org/users/holographicbubbles/pseuds/holographicbubbles
Summary: "DID YOU KNOOOOOOOOW??? SUNDOWN TONIGHT STARTS CHANUKKAH!!! OR AS I LIKE TO CALL IT— CHOOTYKKAH!!!"we're back again to break up the lovely christmas fluff with this mess of a chanukkah fic
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda, Everyone & Everyone
Series: Hooty [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2050530
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	The Chappiest Chootykkah at the Owl Chouse

**Author's Note:**

> A little late for Chanukkah but consider this a horrifying contribution to all the holiday fics! Sorry not sorry for scarring you with Hooty some more...
> 
> Takes place after the disaster that was [Hootyween.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27036616) It's all Hooty's fault. (there will be some refrences to Hootyween but you don't need to read it to understand this) 
> 
> anyway this is what happens when two Jews get annoyed about not being seen.

“HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!”

Luz woke with a start, the same way she had every day for the past… well, _long_ while. Since Hooty’s endeavor, or as he insisted on calling it, his endeav _hoot,_ to outside the Boiling Isles, he had made sure to tell Luz about some ‘new’ part of it each morning.

For two and a half straight months she'd woken up to some variation of:

_“HOOTY HOOTY HOOT HOOT TIME FOR SCHOOL!!! CAN I TELL YOU ABOUT HOW I SANG AT MY FRIENDS UNTIL THEY KIIIIIIISSSED!!! WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR THE SOOOOOONNG!!! OH BOY, I SHOULD SING IT FOR YOU AND YOUR HOOTFRIEND, HOOTMITY!!!”_

_For. Two. And. A. Half. Straight. Months._

Luz groaned, grabbed her pillow, and buried her face underneath it. 

Not that she thought it could do much; she’d tried it every single day and it wasn’t near enough to block out Hooty’s obnoxious noise, but a girl could dream. 

Or rather, pretend. Pretend hard enough, Luz had decided, and it could not become reality but you would have acting practice and then if you ever decided to audition for something you would be a better actor. Or actress. Or non-binary awesome person who could act and was very cool. 

“LUUUUUUUUUUUZ!!!!” Hooty…. Luz was sure it was an attempt to sing, but it made her want to cry. And not because it was moving. Oh no, not because it was anything _close_ to moving. Unless you wanted to define moving as ‘I am moving out of this room right now,’ but for some reason, most people didn’t use it like that in the context of songs. 

Except, Luz supposed, if it was Hooty singing. She hadn’t yet met a single person who didn’t desire to leave the room the second Hooty started singing. 

“LUZ! LUZ! LUZ!!! DID YOU KNOOOOOOOW??” 

Luz groaned into her pillow. “Know what!?” she yelled back at him. “That you should leave me alone!? Yes, I did know that. And you should. A teen—!” she sat up groggily and pointed her finger at the ceiling, “—needs her sleep!” 

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO…” There was a loud _clunk_ as Hooty smashed his face up against the glass of her window. “THAT SUNDOWN TONIGHT STARTS CHANUKKAH!!! OR AS I LIKE TO CALL IT—”

Luz winced and braced herself for what he could say. First, it was Hootyween. Then, Amity had become ‘Hootmity’ or ‘Luz’s Hootfriend!’ and she really didn’t want to know what would come now. 

“CHOOTYKKAH!!!!” 

Luz sighed. She hugged her pillow to her chest and let her head fall into it. “That’s great, Hooty. Now you can leave me alone.”

“NOPE!!!” The window swung open and Hooty came crashing through. “EDA TOLD ME TO WAKE YOU RIGHT UP!!! WE’RE SETTING UP ALL DAY AND THEN WE’RE GONNA HAVE A CHOOTYKKAH PARTY, REMEMBER??? AND WE’RE GONNA DANCE A DANCE CALLED THE HORAH BUT I LIKE TO CALL IT—”

“I don’t wanna know!!” Luz yelled. Her words were muffled by her pillow. 

“TOO BAD!!! I LIKE TO CALL IT THE HOOTRAH AND IT’S SOOOOO MUCH FUUN!!! WE ALSO ARE GOING TO MAKE LATKES, BUT I CALL THOSE _HOOT_ KES, AND EDA’S GONNA MAKE CHOCOLATE GELT, BUT I CALL THOSE CHOCO _HOOT_ GELT, AND WE’RE GONNA PLAY A—”

“Shut uuuuuuup,” Luz moaned into her pillow. Hooty moved his face close to hers. 

“WHAT WAS THAT!? I CAN’T HEAR YOUUUUUUU!!! DID YOU SAY, ‘HOOTY, I’M SO HOOTCITED!!’—?”

“No!”

“BECAUSE TOO BAD, YOU DID, AND IT’S TIME TO GET UP AND GO HAVE FUN BECAUSE IT’S CHOOTYKKAH!!” Hooty moved away from Luz, humming. His hum quickly rose into him singing. “CHOOTYKKAH OH CHOOTYKKAH COME HOOT THE MENHOOTRAH!!! LET’S HAVE A HOOTY WE’LL ALL DANCE THE HOOTRAH!! GATHER ‘ROUND THE TABLE WE’LL HOOT YOU A HOOT!! HOOTDELS TO PLAY AND HOOTKES TO EAT!!!! AND WHILE WE—”

“Stooooop,” Luz whined. “I’m trying to sleep here.” 

“TOO BAD!!!” Hooty yelled. He dove forward and grabbed Luz’s pillow with his beak and whipped it out from between her arms. She gaped in surprise, and he took her momentary shock to grab her blanket as well. Luz lunged at him to try to grab the blanket back, to no avail. 

With what seemed to be his attempt at a malicious chuckle, Hooty threw the bedding out of the window. Luz shot out of bed and rushed over to the window in time to see the blanket fall onto someone below, sparking a screech of indignation and a ‘hey!!’. 

“Sorry…” Luz yelled down reluctantly. “But just so you know that was Hooty’s fault. Not mine!!” 

There was a rustle and exasperated shouting following that as whomever had gotten covered fought their way out. A flash of green and a familiar look of annoyance caught Luz’s gaze and she winced. Amity’s features softened as she looked up at Luz, but her tone was still pissed. 

“I hate that damn bird,” she yelled. “I just want to—” her hands curled into fists. _“Urgh!”_

“You'll love him once you get to know him…?” Luz offered, not sure if she was speaking truthfully or pretending again. 

“Sure,” Amity drawled sarcastically. “Yes. Of course. Now come down here.”

Luz smiled and turned around. Her eyes were closed in a moment of bliss, but it was starkly interrupted when she walked face first into Hooty. His black eyes stared down at her as she stumbled back. 

“YOUR HOOTFRIEND IS HERE!!!” he announced. 

“For the last time—” Luz groaned. “Never mind. Just let me _through_ so I can see her.” 

“OF COURSE,” Hooty hooted, and it sounded too nice to be true, so Luz braced herself for whatever thing he was planning. “YOUR MAJEST _HOOTY!!!”_

Luz rolled her eyes and pushed past him, clamoring down the stairs. At the bottom, Eda and King were watching spelled vegetables parade across the house to them. When she saw Luz, Eda looked up. “Luz! Took you long enough. Your girlfriend is outside.” Eda shrugged. “Again. As always.”

The door creaked open and Hooty entered into the kitchen. “IS SHE EVER NOT OUTSIIIIDE???” he droned. “MAYBE SHE’S _ALWAYS_ OUT THERE, LURKING IN THE SHADOWS, JUST WAITING, _WAIIIIITING—”_

“Shut it, Hooty.” Eda swatted at him with the end of her staff. 

“HEYYYY!!! THAT WASN’T VERY NIIIICE!!! I GUESS I’M LEAVING NOW, SINCE YOU ALL HATE ME SO MUCH. I FEEL SO HATED AND UNLOVED!” Hooty grumbled away and slammed the door shut. 

Luz rolled her eyes. “I saw Amity from upstairs.” She grimaced. “Hooty may have thrown some things… as in my bedding... at her.”

“Well, don’t keep her waiting! Besides, I don’t think you want to sit here watching us grate potatoes and onions all day. King” — Eda snickered and jabbed her thumb in his direction — “Is already feeling the effects of the onion.”

King was wiping tears from his eyes. “Hey!!” he half-yelled, half-sobbed in anger. “Stop making fun of me!!” 

Eda cupped her hand around her mouth and whispered, “Don’t tell him, but he’s really cute when he cries. And, Luz, when you go, bring in that bedding! I’m doing laundry anyway. Haven’t done it in a while. Rewearing clothes is so practical. But even _I_ have standards. Like, ‘clothes must be washed at least once a year’ and ‘bedsheets must be changed at least once every few years’ and— Anywho, stop letting me be a distraction, go to your girlfriend.”

“HOOTFRIEND!!” Hooty interjected, the door creaking loudly as it swung back and forth on its hinges from the force that he’d opened it with. Eda groaned and waved Luz out.

Luz found Amity pacing around. She turned to Luz and opened her arms with a sigh. “There you are! Took you long enough,” she muttered. 

Luz narrowed her eyes. “You _knooow.”_ Her voice pinched. “Hooty,” she offered with a nervous giggle. “Well, Eda and King are in the kitchen grating onions and potatoes, and Hooty is…” she grimaced. “Going in and out of the house bothering them. So we could…” 

“I brought my family’s recipe for sufganiyot, I was… hoping we could make them together.” 

“Th—”

“HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!!” Hooty shot up next to Amity, whose eye twitched. “HI HOOTMITY!!!!! YOU SAID SOMETHING ABOUT SUFGANIYOT!?!?! WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR WHAT I LIKE TO CALL THOOOOOOOOOSE????”

“No, not at all,” Amity growled. 

“I LIKE TO CALL THEM SUFGANI _HOOT!!!_ HOOOOT HOOOOOT HOOOT!!!” 

Luz groaned. “Go away, Hooty.” 

“NOPE!!!! I HAAAAAAVE TO TELL YOU THAT WILLHOOT AND GUS ARE OVER THERE!!! DID YOU KNOW THAT GUS AND I ARE BEEEESSST BUDS??? OH _YEAH,_ WE’RE THE BESTHOOTEST OF BUDS!!!!” 

“Since _when?”_ Gus, looking bewildered, walked up to Amity and Luz, Willow at his side. “The one time we’ve talked it was only me telling you to _stuff your peach pie with a sock!”_ He winked at Luz and threw a finger gun. “Just like the humans say.” 

Luz winced. “Yeah, we sure do say that… all the _time...”_ she muttered to herself. 

“Gus’ll be Gus, as you know,” Willow said, faking sentiment, putting her hand on Luz’s shoulder. “Anyway!! I’m so happy that you and Eda invited us over for today. It’ll be _so_ much better than being stuck at home eating my dads’ burnt latkes and pretending they’re good.” 

“DID SOMEONE SAY HOOTKES???” 

“No,” Willow, Luz, and Gus groaned, while Amity’s hands clenched once more, her knuckles turning white. 

_“No one_ said hootkes,” she seethed. 

“I THINK YOU DIIIIIIID!!! OH BOY, I LOVE HOOTKES!!!!! DO YOUUUUU LOVE HOOTKES??? LET’S SING ABOUT HOOTKES!!!!

HOOTDELS TO PLAY WITH AND HOOTKES TO EEEEEAAAT—”

Hooty bopped his head. “OH YEAH. I LOVE THIS TUNE. LET’S GET A BACKGROUND TRACK PLAYING AND WE’RE GONNA HAVE A PARTYYYYY!!! OH BOY!”

“Uhm.” Luz cleared her throat, gesturing vaguely at Hooty, who was wriggling around in the air, still singing. Every so often he’d interrupt himself, commenting about how good of a singer he was. 

“AND WHILE WE ARE HOOTING THE HOOTLES ARE HOOTING LOOOOOOW — OH YEAH, HOOTY, YOU’RE SOOOO GOOD AT SINGING!!! THAT F SHARP WAS PERFHOOOOOOT!!!” 

“Should we,” Luz continued, still waving her hands at the bird. “Maybe…”

“Run while we can???” Gus suggested, his eyes wide and wild, darting back and forth between Luz and Hooty. 

Next to him, Willow nodded in agreement, and behind him, Amity hammered her fist into her palm and muttered a ‘thank the titans’ under her breath.

“HOOTDEL HOOTDEL HOOTDEL—”

Willow and Gus shared a look before taking off toward the Owl House.

“I MADE IT OUT OF HOOOT AND WHEN IT’S HOOT AND HOOTY—” 

Amity huffed out a heavy breath through her nose, twirling on her heels. Her hands were tight at her side, her knuckles almost the shade of the puffy white clouds above. She stomped her foot on the ground, punching at the floor, and sucked in a sharp breath. Cheeks red and teeth grit, she began, a low growl. “Alright, that’s it, you bird-brained bast—”

 _“Amity!”_ Luz hissed, lunging forward and looping her arm through Amity’s.

“Hey!!” Amity struggled, trying to claw at Luz’s arm as Luz attempted to drag her away. “He’s a menace anyway, just _let me—”_ she grunted as she strained. _“At him!”_

“Nope!!” Luz grinned, pushing her and sending her stumbling the final few feet into the Owl House. Willow tossed her a spoon— 

In a cartoon, Luz would have made some cool diving motion and caught the spoon with a wink and a smile, and then suddenly she would have been wearing an apron and there would be a dash of flour on her cheek and she would look Ready To Cook, but, unfortunately, she wasn’t in a cartoon and—

Narrowly missing her fingers, the spoon clattered loudly to the floor. 

“Aw, dang it,” Luz muttered, getting down from her tippy-toes to pick up the spoon and dust it off on her shirt. 

“Oy vey, Luz,” Eda groaned. “Stop making a racket, will ya? King’s already been whining my ears off for the past ten minutes.”

“HEY!” King sobbed, crawling over to Eda. He sniffled and wiped his nose on his arm. “It’s not my fault!! It’s the damn onion—” he turned back around and pointed in the vague direction of his little cutting board, on which sat a little cheese grater and a chunk of onion, partially grated. “BOW TO ME, YOU SCUM!!! I AM THE KING OF DEMONS AND I CRY FOR NO ONE—” He broke off into a bout of sniffles. “Bowww to meeee,” he sobbed. 

“Stop being so dramatic, King,” Eda complained. “It’s giving me a headache. Luz, you brought in that blanket?”

“Nope, forgot, I’ll do that right awa—”

“Yeah,” Amity chuckled apprehensively, cutting Luz off. “Yeah, about that…? I may have torn it to pieces…” she shrugged, looking barely sheepish under everyone’s gawking — everyone being Willow, Luz, and Gus, Eda looked bored and King looked proud. 

“Amity!” Luz gasped. 

“What!? I had to get rid of my anger.” She jabbed her thumb at her chest. “This heart right here’s got a lot of pent up rage.” 

Eda sighed. “It’s fine, kiddo. I’ve got something _else_ somewhere.”

The emphasis on the ‘else’ made Luz gulp. She didn’t like Eda’s tone of choice, it felt like she had some plan cooking up that wasn’t going to end well for Luz.

Eda chuckled and shook her head. “Anyway, kids, what’s your plan for the rest of the day?” 

Luz looked at the wooden spoon still in her hand, Amity pulled some crinkled, yellowing index cards from her pocket, and Willow and Gus shared a confused look. 

“Well, Amity brought a family recipe that we were thinking of cooking,” Luz offered, glancing at Willow and Gus who both nodded, though neither appeared all too enthused. 

“Bah,” Eda chortled. “Leave the cooking to me—” 

“And me!!!!” King interjected, standing as tall as he could, holding his small chunk of onion to the ceiling. “Don’t forget about Master Chef King!!!!” 

“Yes,” Eda sighed, “and King. You four should go have fun somewhere, you can probably find some interesting trinkets at the marketplace. And you three—” She nodded at Willow, Gus, and Amity, “—can teach Luz about some of the Boiling Isle’s Chanukkah traditions.”

* * *

With the little twerps out for the day, Eda could focus on getting Chanukkah set up. Raising her hand, Eda circled one of her fingers. A faint blue ellipse appeared over her before being lowered onto the ingredients on the table before her. The food — the pile of grated onions and potatoes, eggs, a measuring cup filled with flour, and seasoning — became surrounded by a blue light before they rose to their feet.

“Come on your poor saps, get into the cauldron,” Eda instructed.

After a pause, the ingredients screamed loudly before struggling to jump off the table and get as far away from the witch as they possibly could.

Eda’s hands flew to her hips. “Why do I always think that’s gonna work?”

“Don’t worry, Eda! Wait till you see what I made!” King exclaimed.

Turning her head, Eda saw the furry little demon drag what appeared to look like a large rainbow-colored challah propped in his little red wagon into the room. “What in Titans’ name…? King, you goofus! I told you, you’re not in charge of challah! Not this year, not ever again! Remember what happened last year?”

“Nope. Haven’t got a clue,” he stubbornly folded his arms.

Eda glared at him. Creating another ellipse, it flashed a brief scene before their eyes in which a Bat Queen-sized challah on fire crawled on four legs throughout the nearby town and proceeded to rip down every cutesy-wutsey sign, set sales tags on fire — the latter resulting in a number of customers complaining about having to pay full price for their precious menorah candles and too-large dreidels — and actually tried to eat that conspiracy theorist, Tiny Nose. A rather annoying “I wegwet nothing!” could be heard as the mutant challah sucked her up in the image before the memory vanished into thin air. A pause followed a moment later.

“Nope. Don’t remember that at all,” King folded his arms.

“Oy vey,” Eda mumbled.

“Hey, come on Eda, have some faith in me. You’re gonna love this idea this time!” he insisted.

She folded her arms. “Ugh. Alright, I’ll bite. Whatchya got with that giant monstrosity of challah this time?”

Wagging his tail, King began flailing his arms excitedly. “Okay, okay, so! You know how this is the first Chanukkah that isn’t just you and me?”

The door swung open. “AND MEEEEEEEE!” Hooty exclaimed.

“Shut up, Hooty,” Eda commanded before magicking the door closed.

“OW!”

“Well I thought, wouldn’t it be so awesome if we could actually all get together and put our presents in something this time?” King continued. “Behold!” Wiggling his little legs, he struggled to climb into the red wagon and then up the challah which was at least twice his own height. Eda couldn’t help but chuckle at the way his tiny paws struggled to keep their grip on everything. Not to mention the way his furry butt wigged. Eventually, King made it to the top of the challah. “Behold! My challah cake!”

Eda stopped laughing. “Your what now?” she raised an eyebrow.

“Challah cake! It’s cake that’s shaped like challah! And, and, lookit what I made it do!” Grabbing the tip of the so-called challah cake, King flung it open. He jumped inside with the faintest plop. “Wait for it, wait for it….”

Eda bit her tongue. She wouldn’t dare admit out loud to his face that, as annoying as King could be, he really was the cutest little thing when he got excited.

That, and if she did then she was sure his next challah monster would be destroying her damn house, too. If that was going to happen it was going to be before she paid the bills so she could take it up with the damn real estate business. She could totally claim she had paid when she didn’t and, if the house went up in flames, there’d be no proof of anything. She could milk the disaster for all it was worth. And get rich off of it and buy a bigger, less quiet house. Now that would be a Chanukkah miracle!

"EDA!" King whined.

"Huh? Who? Wha?"

Shaking her head, she was quickly met with a pouting King, who was leaning out from inside the challah cake with the saddest puppy dog eyes. “You totally missed it!”

“IIIIIIIIIII DIDN’T!” Hooty sang.

Eda groaned. “Okay, King, run through it again,” she conceded.

Slinking back into the challah cake, the demon took a much less dramatic pause before popping out again and throwing confetti out of his paws and into the air. “TA DA!”

The witch stared at him deadpanned.

“Eda, come on!” he complained. “It’s the best idea ever! This year, I hide in the challah cake with everyone’s presents each night and everyone gets super excited about their gifts. And me! Then, next year, we sell this idea. We have everyone buy our multi-colored challah cakes, set them next to their menorahs, and then, after the candles are lit each night they open their cakes and who pops out with the gifts but a perfectly replicated replica of me, King! They’ll love their gifts, and more importantly, they’ll love me who gives them their gifts! And I will be the most worshipped demon on the Boiling Isles! The King of Demons will rise once again as the Demon of Chanukkah! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Eda rubbed her chin in thought. “Well I do like the idea of getting rich.” She paused and muttered under her breath, “Especially since that doofus who sells me my elixir doesn’t seem to accept my chocolate gelt every year. Dunno why, it’s perfectly good fake money.”

“See? See?” King wagged his tail.

“Alright, alright, don’t wazz on the floor, King,” she waved her hand.

“One time! It was one time!” he barked angrily.

Taking her staff from the side, Eda twisted the wooden owl on top. Owlbert quickly materialized and blinked curiously at what his companion could possibly want. Other than to rub his adorable owl belly, of course! “Owlbert, I need you to find Luz and her friends. Tell them to pick up some crap for me on their way back before it gets dark. I’m gonna need something that looks like King but much more adorable and with a crown.”

“Hey!” the demon yipped.

“Quiet, you! It’s your Chanukkah gift,” Eda warned. She turned back to her palisman. “Also tell them I need the stuff for the final plague. You know the one.” Each year, spread from Passover to Chanukkah, Eda would re-enact (though at a much less harsh scale) the ten plagues of Passover. Or, as the Boiling Isles knew them better as, the Ten Plagues of Hooty.

King gasped dramatically. “You didn’t even start the final plague??”

“Hey, cut me some slack. I’m running a little late tonight, okay?” Eda replied. She sent Owlbert on his way to go after Luz and the others.

As the door opened and the tiny bird flew out, Hooty wormed his way into the house. He circled around Eda a few times until he was able to meet her at eye level.

“HEEEEEEEY WAIT A HOOTY MINUTE! HOW COME YOU DIDN’T HOOT MEEEEEEEEE?”

Eda pushed his face away. “Hooty, personal space!”

“I HAVE NOOOOOOOO IDEA WHAT THAT EVEN MEANS,” he grinned.

"Yeah, of course you don’t you demented bird,” she mumbled under her breath. She pushed back some of her white hair. “Come on, Hooty, you’re not exactly….” She paused. What was a good word to use on him without hurting his little hooty feelings…?

“Oooooh oooooh ooooh!” King chirped. “Reliable? Responsible? Not annoying? Any good for anyone about anything?”

“Well maybe not in so many words buuuuuuuut okay yeah, in exactly all of those words,” Eda agreed perhaps too quickly.

Hooty’s jaw dropped. “WHAAAAAAAAAAAAA?”

Eda sighed. “C’mon, Hooty, it’s nothing personal.”

“NO! I HOOTED YOU LOUD AND CLEAR. I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU HOOT THIS WAY TO ME. ON CHOOTYKKAH OF ALL NIGHTS!”

“Not called Chootykkah,” she commented through grit teeth.

“IT’S JUST LIKE HOOTYWEEN AAAAAAAAAALL OVER AGAIN!”

“Now wait a minute! That is total bull—”

“I DON’T NEED TO HOOT ANY OF THIS FROM YOU! POOF ME TO MY _REAL_ FRIENDS!”

“Okay, now you’re just being dramatic.”

“NO, YOU’RE BEING HOOTMATIC!”

“That’s not even a word!”

“IS SO!”

“Is not!”

“IS SO!”

“Is not!”

“IS SO!”

“I am not having this argument with a Hooty!”

“IS SO!”

King raised one of his paws, "Does this count as the first Hooty plague? Cause if it does I'm gonna need you to start over again so I can watch with some pre-Chanukkah donuts."

"Do you enjoy watching this monstrosity torture me?"

"IS SO!"

"UGHHH! Dammit, Hooty!"

* * *

Luz’s eyes widened with wonder as she walked through the marketplace with her friends. Everything looked so different for the holidays. There were stars hung from banners and wires...slightly creepy, mucus dripping stars, anyway. There were menorahs on multiple tables...though admittedly not like the ones she used to see back home; they were in twisted shapes or lined up differently. There was one that looked like some kind of ladder, another that climbed up and looped around and down like a roller coaster, and another with holders so long and bright they almost resembled lightsabers. There were beautiful, brightly lit stars on each of the table that appeared to have the cutest little faces...until someone walked by them and they proceeded to yell, “CHAPPY CHOLIDAYS MSHUGES” and “STOP SETTING ME ON FIRE!”

 _Yeesh,_ Luz couldn’t help but think as she flinched.

The Boiling Isles sure had their own ways of doing holidays, didn’t they?

Or...cholidays, she supposed? Emphasis on the _ch_? Like she was trying to cough up something? Maybe she shouldn’t force it; she didn’t want to offend anyone.

But she was still going to be around training for a while. And she was spending a holiday with her friends. So Luz wanted to make sure she knew as much as she could so she could properly celebrate with everyone.

“So,” she clapped her hands together with a smile, “what exactly is Chootykkah celebrating, anyway?”

Gus held up a finger, “Actually, we call it Chanukkah but it’s a popular misconception. Everyone on the Isles has their own way of observing. Actually, it’s a fascinating story, it actually dates back to about a few thousand years ago where this group of witches called the Macabees-”

“Ugh,” Amity’s groan interrupted the younger. “Long story short, it was olden times where witches used oil but they didn’t have enough, they thought it wouldn’t last but it did so now we celebrate a miracle. The end.” Folding her arms, she walked away from the group and approached one of the tables.

Gus blinked. “Huh,” he squeaked, “I guess that’s a much easier way of explaining it.”

“It’s okay, Gus,” Willow offered. Even though Gus was not disheartened by Amity’s curt response, he still appeared a bit down that he couldn’t show off his vast knowledge to his friends. “Maybe Eda will let you lead the prayer later.”

Gus’s eyes lit up at the thought. “Ohohohoh do you think we could do any of it the human way, too?” Magicking up a pen and paper, Gus eagerly prepared to write down any and everything Luz could possibly tell him about Chanukkah in the human world. “Luz, what do I do? Do I have to wear something different? Do I need to change my accent at all? Any hats? And what do human dreidels actually look like? Should I be standing on my hands for it?”

Luz blinked. She looked away from Amity’s direction and refocused her attention on Gus. “Oh...uh...actually, I’m not so sure,” she admitted. “I don’t celebrate Chanukkah back home. I celebrate a different holiday called Christmas.”

Gus gasped. “There are multiple holidays at once in the human world???”

“Well…. Yeah,” Luz shrugged. “Everyone is different. Some people celebrate Christmas, some people celebrate Chanukkah, some people Kwanzaa, and others don't celebrate any. And we all observe differently, too. A lot of people call the major holiday back home Christmas. But to me and Mami, it’s Navidad. So we say Feliz Navidad.”

“Hm…” Gus tapped his pen to his chin. “Felts Ninety Dads,” he attempted to repeat.

Luz pulled in her lips in an attempt to hold back giggles at her friend’s failed try. As much as Gus loved all things human-related, there were never some things he quite seemed to get just right.

“Feliz Navidad,” Willow repeated a bit slower for him. “It sounds happy.”

“It is,” Luz mused. “Is it happy for you guys here, too?”

“It is,” Willow nodded. “Like Amity said, we celebrate a miracle. And we exchange a gift every night after we light a candle on the menorah to commemorate that. We’re thankful for everything that we’re given and for what anyone can give to us.”

That actually sounded a lot nicer than Luz could have imagined. When she first arrived on the Boiling Isles everything seemed so scary and dark and different. But the more time she spent there, the more she realized that things didn’t seem so different after all. And, it was just like Eda had told her early on in her adventures there — sometimes she had to look from a new perspective. Realizing that, however, Luz returned her attention to Amity and her face fell at her girlfriend’s distance.

“Hey…” she asked cautiously, “how come Amity doesn’t seem so happy…?”

“Well Amity can sorta kinda sometimes be a total—” Gus started to comment, only to have Willow magic a piece of tape over his mouth. The plant witch clasped her hands together and offered Luz a soft look.

“The thing about Amity is...she was raised a lot different than me and Gus were. Her parents can be a bit….” She paused. “Strict.”

Strict. That seemed like such a light word. Luz recalled when she and Amity had to travel into Willow’s mind and look back on the memories from when the two witches used to be friends. The way Amity’s parents talked to her and made her cut Willow out of her life was…. Not good. It was very not good.

“I think I’m gonna try talking to her,” Luz decided.

“We’ll be by the falafel stand if you need us,” Willow said. She gently dragged Gus along with her, who sounded like he was trying to mumble ‘see you later’ through his taped mouth. Luz waved them off before looking at her girlfriend once again. She took a breath before cautiously walking over.

“Hey….”

Amity briefly glanced in Luz’s direction. Keeping her arms folded, she merely offered a shrug of her shoulders and focused on one of the trinkets in front of them. “Hi.”

Luz rubbed her arms. Well. This was. Not a great start. “Hey...um...do you…. Wanna talk about that at all?”

Amity kept her gaze stoic as she began walking away from the stand. “Nothing to talk about.”

“Are...are you sure?” Luz asked. “You just seemed….” What was a nice way to word this? “Weeeeeeeell just a biiiiiiiiit-”

“Luz,” she sent a glare in her girlfriend’s direction.

Stopping in her tracks, Luz sighed and put her hands to her sides. “Mean,” she answered softly and regretfully.

Amity remained where she was for a moment. She blinked and watched Luz carefully. She didn’t mean what she said; Amity knew that. Luz knew that Amity could be a bit...well, cold and standoffish, she supposed. She accepted those things about her. Still, that wasn’t how she wanted Luz to see her. That wasn’t how she had to be all the time. And she didn’t want to be that way around Luz of all people. Sighing, she turned to face the human fully.

“Look Luz, it’s just….” How to explain this without destroying Luz’s poor, innocent outlook on life? “It’s not as a happy time for me as it is for everyone else.”

“Do you wanna talk about it at all?” she offered.

No, not really.

But Luz wasn’t going to accept that.

Or, rather she would. But then she’d try to figure out any and every way to put a smile on Amity’s face and actually make it an enjoyable day for her.

Just because Amity’s past Chanukkahs had been less than ideal didn’t mean they had to continue that way. Luz would certainly make sure of that.

“Miracles...like the ones from the story…. They don’t exactly work for witches like me,” Amity confessed after a pause.

She turned her head away. She didn’t expect Luz to understand. Miracles were for the witches less fortunate. Miracles were for the witches who needed it. Amity’s family was so well-known, revered, and just plain powerful. But Amity? She had to work hard to get to where she was? She had to work hard to be the witch — magically and generally speaking — that she was supposed to be. But it didn’t always mean she could be the witch she was meant to be. She could never actually show anyone how weak or vulnerable she could actually be. She couldn’t let everyone else know that she was anything less than perfect. Removing one of her arms from around her, Amity pushed some hair behind her ear. She twisted her lips. Her hair. Not even her hair was perfect if her mother had to change it. Because she had to match her siblings. She couldn’t even keep her hair its natural way without being questioned. Something as simple and trivial as damn hair. What did that mean for the rest of her?

But it didn’t matter what was going on in Amity’s head or how she reacted to everyone else. Because, somehow, Luz could always see through all of that. And she never outright ran away or pushed Amity back. She chose to be there and actually see something in her. To accept her. To try with her. To just...celebrate her.

Reaching across the small distance between them, Luz took Amity’s hand in hers. Her hand briefly brushed against Amity’s cheek in the process, causing a blush to flush her face that contrasted the green strands of hair. With wide eyes, Amity’s hand whished to face her girlfriend.

“I’m still here, aren’t I?” Luz asked simply.

That’s right. She was, wasn’t she? Luz had a chance to go back. She could have gone back home to her family. Her home. Where she belonged. But she chose to stay there. In the Owl House. On the Boiling Isles. With Willow and Gus. With Amity. She….

She chose Amity.

Nothing else mattered. not her coldness. Not how she looked. Not her temper. Not how good of a witch she was. Not what she did. She didn't have to try to be anything around Luz other than herself.

That was a pretty damn special miracle to happen for her, wasn’t it?

Her lips tilted in a somewhat cocked smile and she found herself able to relax in Luz’s embrace.

“Come on, let’s go catch up to the others. We can split a falafel and a soda,” Luz offered.

“I’d like that,” Amity agreed.

They took no more than two steps forward when a tiny owl suddenly landed on Luz’s shoulder. The teen halted once again and looked at the creature curiously.

“Oh! Hi there, Owlbert!” she smiled. “What are you doing all the way out here, little guy?”

Owlbert cooed and yipped quietly, as if to tell Luz something. Luz raised an eyebrow in response.

“Huh?”

“What is it? Is everything okay?” Amity asked.

“I’m not sure,” Luz confessed. “It…. It almost sounded like he said we need to get things for the plagues. Do you know anything about that?”

Amity blinked. “O-oh….” She reluctantly pulled her hand out of Luz’s grip and took a step back. “Th...that’s just supposed to be a myth….”

She couldn’t tell Luz about the plagues. Not quirky, chipper, adorable, innocent Luz. She was already wrecked enough from some of the horrors on the Boiling Isles that should have scarred any typical human for life. How could Amity willingly inflict more darkness and confusion on her?

“Amity…?” Luz brows furrowed, “What do you know about the plagues…?”

* * *

There was a loud creak and a cloud of dust swirled in the air as Eda pulled the lid to the chest open. "Alright," she began, looking smugly into its interior and rubbing her hands together. "There's a lot of old junk in here, but I do think I have the _perfect_ gift for Luz somewhere in here." 

With a chortle, she turned to King, who was sprawled on the floor filling in a Chanukkah coloring book with messy scrawled ideas. _'A plan for world domination,'_ is what he'd called it. 

"Oh," Eda snorted, "and by perfect, I mean it's gonna drive her insane." 

King threw his paws in the air, still holding his coloring page tight, grinning excitedly. "I love driving Luz insane!!!!!" 

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT IIIIIIII LOOOOOOVEEE?" Hooty weaved his head through the window and pressed his beak up against the side of King's face. 

"I LOOOOOOVE DRIVING LUZ INSANE!!! OH BOY, WE SHARE A COMMON INTEREST!!!! DOES THAT MEAN WHAT I THIIIIIIIINK IT DOOOOOOOEEES?????" 

"Urgh," King groaned. "Go away, Hooty. You're ruining my idea streak for my plan of world domination!!!" 

Hooty grinned down at King, completely ignoring the smaller demon. "YOU'RE RIGHT!!!!! IT DOES MEAN WE NOW MUST START A CLUB!!!!!! OH HOOT YEAH!!!!" 

"No!!!!" King protested. A crayon clattered to the floor as he threw his paws dramatically to the side. "No _cluuuuubs,"_ he wailed, an exaggeration.

"AND IN THIS CLUB WE CAN TAKE OVER THE WOORLD!!!! ONE DRIVING LUZ INSANE AT A TIME!!!!!" 

"Wait, did you say something about taking over the world??" King turned to Hooty, and picked up the blue crayon from where it had fallen. He tore out a page from the coloring book and held the tip of the crayon to it, nodding seriously. "Go on."

Eda rolled her eyes. "Hooty, screw off. No one's taking over the world or forming clubs. Right now, we're finding Luz's gift." She cupped her hand around her mouth and whispered, "Though hit me up later on that club idea, I've got some ideas."

Eda shuffled through the chest. It was large and deep and there were many layers to all of the stuff that had collected there over the years. "Man," she said, pulling out an old grudgby ball, the leather tattered from many games of use, names scrawled onto its surface. "I haven't seen much of this stuff in years!!" 

She tossed the ball in the air and it went soaring behind her. There was a series of _'bonk!'_ noises as it bounced off the wall and then off of King, who took the hit with a startled yelp. "Hey!!!" he exclaimed. 

Eda rolled her eyes and dove back into the chest. She pulled out a golden, floppy hat, one that she had found on one of her trips to the human realm years and years ago. It was adorned with bells that she had enchanted to whine instead of ring, because she had found that funny. It was the perfect size for King, but the demon refused to wear it. 

"King, remember this?" Eda teased. "What do you think of trying it on again?" 

"Oh titans!!" King yelped. "Not the wailey-hat!!!! Please, Eda, _not_ _the wailey-hat!!"_

Eda snorted. "I was just teasing you." She tossed it behind her head and it flew away, wailing. "There is so much stuff in here that I could give as gifts."

She sighed, a laugh at the tip of her tongue. "If gift-giving were my thing. But why give away all this? It's all still useful," she commented, not so sure of herself as she looked down at a soggy square of fabric. "Anyway, we're—" she looked over her shoulder at King, who was mumbling very earnestly to himself. "—or I guess, _I'm_ looking for Luz's gift. It's gotta be in here somewhere."

Several minutes of searching in what seemed to be a bottomless pit, one questionable plan for world domination, and several times screaming 'Hooty, shut up!!' later, Eda emerged from the chest, holding a blue and white.. well, one could argue as devil's advocate that it was soft, blanket. "Aha!" she exclaimed. "I have found it! Okay, we just have to remember not to fully unfold it and we're good. And make sure we have stock of that silencing potion. King, check for me, will ya? I've gotta write Luz a note." 

King grumbled, but complied. "Yeah," he yawned. "We got... something. Probably enough." They'd made sure to keep a good stock of it since they had to babysit. No one deserved to go through that type of torture, except maybe the victim of one of Eda's pranks. 

"Very helpful," Eda muttered, tearing out a sheet of paper from King's book. There was blank paper at the back, and King had thankfully not ruined it. 

"YOU KNOW WHO ELSE IS VERY—" 

Eda glared down Hooty. "You really test my patience, you dumb bird. You're lucky you're useful..." She grimaced as she watched him hack up a rock onto the ground outside. "Most of the time."

* * *

With the latkes now finished and the new cauldron boiling, Eda stretched out her arms and cracked her knuckles. “Alright,” she grinned toothily, “let’s get these sweets melted and the gelt shaped, chocolate money isn’t gonna make itself. And we only got….” She turned her head and took notice of the time. Eda blinked. “Huh…. Wow, it’s way later than I thought. Ugh! Alright, guess we’re gonna have to do this the other way.” 

“CAN IIIIIII HELP MAKE THE CHOCOHOOT GEEELT???” Hooty peered inside. “OH WAIT, I DON’T WANT TO. WE’RE NOT ON HOOTING TERMS, YOU BIG MEANIE.”

“Good,” Eda muttered. She put a large bowl on the table and snapped her fingers over it. She moved them in a circle and the spell followed her movement, the colors changing from a shimmery gold to a rich, chocolatey brown as the spell started to work. Chocolate coins poured through the spell circle into the bowl below. 

“IN FACT, WE’RE NEVER GOING TO HOOT TO EACH HOOTER AGAIN. NO SIRHOOTY HOOT. NOT UNLESS YOU POOF ME BACK TO MY REAL, BESTHOOTEST FRIENDS.” 

Eda groaned and her head fell to her hands. “You’re not going back to those two, poor girls. You put enough strain on them the last time.” Under her breath, she added on, “and they probably never want to see you again, anyway.” 

“HEY!!!! I HEARD THAT!!! AND YOU’RE _ALL_ WRONG!! THEY ARE MY REAL FRIENDS AND THEY _ALWAYS_ WANNA SEE MEEE!!!! THAT’S THE LAST THING THEY SAID, REMEMBER?? HOOTSA WAS ALL TEARY-EYED AND LIKE, ‘OH HOOTY I’M GOING TO MISS YOU _SOOOOOOOO_ MUCH’ AND HOOTYMAREN WAS LIKE ‘MY LIFE HAS NO PURPOSE WITHOUT YOU IN IT, HOOTY’—” 

Eda rolled her eyes. “That’s not true, and you know it. Anyway, I’m too busy to put up with you right now, I’ve got to get ready for the plagues before Luz and her friends get back.”

“NO ONE IS _EVER_ TOO BUSY TO TALK TO MEEEEEEE—”

Eda waved her hand at the door and it slammed shut, abruptly cutting Hooty off. From the other side of it, a muffled “HEYYYYYYY!!!!!” could be heard. 

“Alright,” Eda said to herself, standing up. She placed her hands on her hips. The window blew open, allowing in a chilled breeze, as Owlbert flew back in, chirping. He carried a little note, scrawled in Luz’s handwriting with a little heart at the end.

_Eda,_

_I already forgot what you needed for the plagues!_

Eda facepalmed. “Well, I guess I can make do with what I have,” she grumbled, and looked to her disorganized shelves. “Whatever we have, it’s good enough, nothing can go too wrong.” 

She pulled down a jar of plague-spawner. It was well past when it should have been used by, but that was still fine. 

Probably. 

She dragged her heavy cauldron across the room and added sprinkles of powders and sloshes of different colored liquids until the cauldron was filled to the brim with a thick, fizzing, green liquid. She grinned down at it. “Perfect. Now we’ll let it sit over the fire until Luz gets back, and by then—” she rubbed her hands together. “It’ll _all_ be ready.”

* * *

Luz and her friends returned not too long later, carrying laughter and conversation into the Owl House, which had started to feel a little empty. Hooty had refused to talk to Eda, muttering to himself that her ‘locking him out’ was the last straw and they were never, ever talking again, and King had fallen fast asleep after eating a few too many pieces of chocolate gelt that he had snatched from the bowl as it filled up. 

“LUUUUUUUUUZ!!!” Hooty said as she approached. “I’M SO GLAD THAT YOU’RE BACK!!!! EDA HAS BEEN A BIG MEANIE AND I NEED YOU TO PROMISE THAT YOU’LL TELL HER OOOFFF.” 

“Ugh,” Amity groaned, and pushed through Luz to reach the door. “You’re wasting our time, you dumb bird. Now let us in.” 

Hooty swiftly turned his head to the side. “NUH-UH. NOT UNTIL LUZ PROMISES THAT SHE’LL GO AND TELL EDA OFF!!!” 

Amity glared at Hooty, and turned her glare to Luz. Her amber eyes looked as if they could have been pools of fire and Luz could almost hear her saying ‘hurry up and tell him what he wants so I don’t have to deal with him any longer, or I swear to the Titans—’

Luz gulped. “Uh- ye-yeah, of course Hooty!! I promise,” she offered nervously. 

“NOT GOOD ENOUGH.” 

Gus and Willow hung behind, hiding from Hooty’s view in Luz and Amity’s silhouettes. Amity’s hands clenched into fists once again, and her body trembled in anger. _“Just. Let. Us. In,”_ she seethed through clenched teeth. “Or else.”

“FIIIIIIIIINE YOUR MAJESTHOOTY,” Hooty said, sounding displeased. The door creaked as he opened it, slowly. “BUT THAT WASN’T VERY NICE. YOU SHOULD BE NICER.” 

“I’m not talking to a bird-tube-demon about what I should and shouldn't do,” Amity hissed as she walked inside, pulling Luz by her arm behind her. Willow and Gus followed, ducking through the door before Hooty slammed it shut again. 

Luz jabbed her thumb behind her. “What was that about?” 

Eda waved her hand tiredly. “I wouldn’t poof him back to his ‘real friends’, he wouldn’t shut up, so I slammed the door on him, blah blah blah. Anyway, let’s get ready for Chanukkah.” 

* * *

"And now, the piece de resistant!" Eda announced about an hour later.

"Actually, I believe the humans say, 'piece de resistance," Gus politely corrected with an emphasis on the _-ance._

"Yeah, okay, whatever," Eda mumbled. Poofing the cauldron from the other side of the room to in front of her, the crowd of misfits gathered around it. Bubbles boiled from the black pot. Liquid oozed green glops over the sides. Steam rose from inside. The bubbles that began to fly from over everyone briefly showed flashes of strange faces - some resembling humans like Luz while others strange creatures not quite from the Boiling Isles. Eda leaned forward, long fingers clutching the edges of the cauldron. As she inched closer, an eerie shadow fell over her face ad her golden tooth shined under the questionable light. She completed her statement almost sinisterly, as if it should have been any holiday but Chanukkah. "The Ten Plagues of Hooty! Muahahahahaha!"

"YEEEEEEEES! THAT'S RIIIIIIIIIIGHT!" Hooty eagerly circled around everyone multiple times. "SUMMON MY MANY HOOTY CHILDREN! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!"

"Wait..." Luz blinked, "the ten plagues of what to summon the many babies of who to do what now?"

With another poof of magic, a mysterious fog befell the living room. Luz jerked back, having no idea what was going on, while her friends stared wide-eyed in anticipation and King shook his tiny paws with glee and let out his tiny, adorable squeal. Multiple tiny 'hoots' could be heard, likely coming from the cauldron. There were brief flashes of tiny Hooty faces, almost seeming as if they were going to flood the room quicker than the fog. Finally, they gathered together to form one giant Hooty head. With a final, rather loud and almost uncharacteristic deep ' **HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT'** , the beak opened and everything became black.

But, as quickly as the darkness came, it vanished.

"Okay, there we go. The Ten Plagues of Hooty are complete," Eda rubbed her hands together.

"Wait, what? That's it??" Luz gasped.

"What'd you expect, kid? Hooty's been torturing you with those damn 'hootfriends'—" she used air quotes as she spoke, "of his all month—"

"THEIR NAMES ARE HOOTYMAREN AND ELSHOOT, HOOT YOU VERY MUCH!" Hooty huffed. He paused, "OR DID SHE PREFER HOOTSA? YOU KNOW, I REALLY SHOULD'VE HOOTED HER TO BE SURE. I NEED TO ASK HER HOOTFIRNED, I BET SHEEEEEEEE'D KNOW. HOOTYMAREN KNOWS EEEEEEEEEEEEVERYTHING!"

"Anyway," Eda folded her arms, ignoring the owl demon, "everyone else here knows what to expect. I figured, Hooty's got you enough. We don't need to see _all_ ten plagues in action at once."

"But I wanna seeeeeeeee," Luz pouted.

"Really?" the elder raised an eyebrow.

"Yes Eda, pleeeeeeaaaaaaase!" Luz insisted. "It's my first Chanukkah with you guys and I really wanna get it right and see everything so please show me? Just a little bit? Pretty pretty pleeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaase?" She pursed her lips as far out as they could go, bulged her eyes and forced them to excessively water, and clasped her hands together in a desperate plea.

"No! It's too adorable! Make it stop! Make it stoooooooooop!" King begged.

"Ugh, just show Luz something before I hear all about it tomorrow," Amity huffed stubbornly.

Gus squinched his eyes and lightly nudged his classmate. "You just want her to be happy, don't you, Amity?" he teased.

Amity hissed, causing Gus to quickly retract his arm and let out an 'eep'.

"Son of a... Why do I even bother?" Eda rolled her eyes. "Fine, you wanna see some snaps or whatever you call them of unwanted Hooty babies scarring some more juveniles?"

"HEEEEEEEY! IIIIIIIIIII WANT THEM!!" Hooty argued.

"Yes, please!" Luz chirped contently.

Eda deadpanned her. "I both respect and hate your torturous passion."

Eda created a few small ellipses above the cauldron. Each one lowered to capture a bubble. "Now, normally, we watch and laugh as we see what these horrible mini Hooties do to a bunch of unsuspecting unfortunate souls. And, on several occasions, we send a few extra to Principal Bump, my sister, that guard who's always hitting on me, Tibbles, Belos, and anyone else who ever tried to catch me or do me in."

"Not to mention the multiple exes!" King added happily.

"Ah, yes, all those wasted years. Buncha ditwads," Eda mumbled. "Can't believe I wasted all that time on — eeeesh — _love_ when I could've been working on getting even more powerful."

Luz raised an eyebrow. "But wait...wouldn't that make them the Many Plagues of Hooty instead?"

"Hey, hey, hey," Eda waved her finger, "don't question the Plagues, okay kid? Now pay attention to the roughly ten to thirty seconds you get of this." With the snap of her fingers and a puff of smoke, the too-short scenes played out for the crowd of witches.

* * *

_"HOOT!"_

_"HOOT!_

_"HOOT!"_

_A squeak that rivaled the cuteness of King's followed too quickly. A human/cat hybrid leaped out of her curled up position and began swatting at the many tiny owl demons surrounding her. She slashed at once, knocking it away from her with a 'hoot' only to have another one appear in front of her. The squeak escaped her again and she raised her claws again. Another 'hoot' and Hooty followed. The process continued multiple times. After the first four Hooties she began to hiss and claw more rapidly, as if she were releasing roughly two decades of pent up anger and frustration._

_"Hey... HEY!"_

_Her voice grew higher pitched with each 'hey' that followed. It was perhaps the sweetest thing anyone could have heard it despite it contrasting her seemingly vicious appearance._

_A final, much tinier Hooty landed on top of the cat person's head, flattening her messy hair. The tiny Hooty rolled closer to the front, almost seeming to float down in front of her face. He stopped in mid-air, tiny questionable beady eyes meeting hers. There was a pause as all the bird did was stare at her. Finally, the tiniest, squeakiest possible 'HOOT' escaped him. The cat woman blinked._

_"HISSSSSSSSSSS!"_

_She jumped up, landing on all fours, and scowled at the Hooty, pawing it away from her._

_"HOOOOOOOOOOOT!" he squawked as he flew across the room._

_The cat woman heaved, tail up in the air, and fur and hair on her body alike sticking up. Suddenly, the many Hooties rose._

_"HOOT?"_

_"HOOT??"_

_"HOOT?"_

_"HOOT?"_

_Hoot after hoot after hoot quickly followed. She turned her head in multiple directions, unable to count how many even surrounded her._

_That is, until she realized the room was almost completely filled with these tiny, creepy, furry, feathery, owl heads._

_"GRRRRRR..." She hissed once more before screaming as loud as she could in an equally adorable voice that no one should have been able to say no to. "ADORA!!!!"_

* * *

_Another human with a skin tone almost similar to Gus's, yet taller and fit stood in the middle of a forest with a bow at his disposal. He had the brightest eyes and his shirt almost seemed too short for his body, which was completely fine because he was obviously someone comfortable and confident in his body. Good for him!_

_Using his free hand, the human squinted and seemed to be pointing at something in front of him. He muttered something...something mathematical or technical or something...before nodding in approval with the biggest smile._

_"I've got it!" he cheered. "Now time to test this new baby out!"_ _He reached to grab something in the tube attached to his back. At first he seemed to grab an arrow to shoot... That is, until he saw that something had replaced the sharp end of it. Something round; strange combination of furry and feathery; beady-eyed; and began speaking in the most annoying pitch imaginable._

_"HOOTY HOOT HOOT!"_

_The human blinked._

_A pause followed._

_"Uh... G...Glimmer..." he shivered, looking for his girlfriend. Or partner. Or companion. Or friend. Or whoever this funny-named person was to him. What was his name even? Maybe it was Bow since he had a bow and so many arrows. But it didn't matter because there was no answer._

_The next thing he knew, many of identical looking owls poked their heads out from nearly every tree or branch surrounding him. The boy's eyes slowly moved to meet each one. All tiny black eyes stared at him blankly, very few of them blinking — save for one which seemed to blink one eye, take a long pause, blinked the same eye, and then the other one seconds later. The boy gulped. The Hooties were eerily silent. He seemed afraid that with another sudden move or sound, they'd attack. Or scream. Or...something. But somehow he managed to let the faintest whisper escape his lips, praying his girlfriend magically heard him._

_"Help...?"_

_Another pause followed._

_Then, suddenly..._

_"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!"_

_"AAAAAAAAAAH!!!"_

* * *

_In what appeared to be a different forest, there was a goofy-looking dude feeding a carrot to a reindeer._

_"Who's a good reindeer? Who's the most amazing reindeer ever?" the boy cooed._

_"'Please stop doing that to me, Ryder, it makes me feel dumb,'" he spoke in a dorky voice — was that supposed to be_ for _the reindeer? As in, he was speaking in the animal's place?_

_"Okay, I'm sorry, I just forget because you're always my baby reindeer," he apologized._

_"'And I forgive you for that,'" he spoke in the doofy voice._

_He grabbed his heart and grinned widely. "Thank you, Fuzzles! I appreciate you so much!"_

_The boy, Ryder, turned around to one of the trees, only to be greeted by one of the tiny Hooty head sticking off the branch. His face came dangerously close to the tiny owl's, the beak practically poking Ryder in the nose. If he had been just a little bit taller he would have accidentally ended up kissing the owl instead. Now_ that _would have been a terrible plague!_

_"HOOT," the owl hooted._

_"What...?" Ryder blinked._

_A second tiny Hooty popped up from under his hat._

_"HOOT!"_

_Then another from the reindeer, Fuzzles's — seriously, what kind of name was that? — fur._

_"HOOT."_

_Then, before Ryder knew it, many more Hooties seemed to pop up and surround him._

_"HOOT."_

_"HOOT."_

_"HOOT."_

_"HOOT."_

_"Oh man," Ryder's shoulders slumped, "did I get drunk on that fancy Arendelle wine again?"_

* * *

_Countless mini Hooties were raining down on the new scene. It appeared to be somewhere not quite tropical but definitely somewhere surrounded by oceans. A tall, toned woman with thick, gorgeous teal locks and a trident in her hand leaned towards one side on a throne with her free hand against her cheek, staring at a strange mustache and shirtless dancing man in front of her. She couldn't have looked more bored out of her mind while the man, meanwhile, was nothing short of thrilled._

_"Excellent!" he cheered, throwing his hands up at the random owls. "A new sea shanty for us to partake in! What shall we call this adventurous new ditty?"_

_"How about, Get The Hell Outta My Kingdom," the woman commented stoically._

_"No, no, that will never do. Come now, Mermista, you must be more creative! Embrace it! Breathe in these extraordinary new creatures raining down upon us!" he exclaimed. "Tell me owls, what shall we call you!"_

_"HOOT."_

_"HOOT."_

_"HOOT."_

_"Yes! Excellent!" Clearing his throat, the man began to dance beneath the raining Hooties._

"IT'S RAINING HOOTS, HALLELUJAH! IT'S RAINING HOOTS! AMEN!

I'M GONNA GO RUN OUT AND LET MYSELF GET

ABSOLUTELY HOOTING WET!

IT'S RAINING HOOTS, HALLELUJAH!

IT'S RAINING HOOTS, EVERY KIND OF HOOT

TINY, FEATHERY, BROWN AND CREEPY

ROUND AND LITTLE HOOTING HOOTS

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SALINEAS

IT'S GONNA START RAINING HOOTS!

IT'S RAINING HOOTS, HALLELUJAH!"

 _Mermista narrowed her gaze. "Instead of setting your next ship on fire, can you set_ you _on fire?"_

* * *

_"So. Many. BABIES!"_

_The woman...scorpion...warrior...thing's eyes lit up with pure delight at the random appearance of all the Hooties. No one could have possibly ever been_ that _excited about anything to do with Hooty before._

_Beside her was a much shorter, leaner female covered in flowers and spoke in a calmer tone, though for some reason appeared equally as happy as her companion._

_"Oh what a joyous occasion to be greeted with so many new friends!" she smiled. Letting out the faintest gasp, a blush covered her face as she turned to the scorpion lady. "Oh... S...Scorpia... Does...do you suppose... A...are we...?"_

_Scorpia blinked as she gathered many of the Hooties in her claws. She seemed clueless compared to the other, certainly not nearly as nervous, but after a long pause she sounded more excited than anything._

_"Are we about to come up with the coolest names for these little guys ever? You bet we are!"_

_On second thought, if either of the two were at all happy about it then this was the opposite of the plague. It was just... Wrong. So very, very wrong._

* * *

_“HOOT!!”_

_“HOOT!!”_

_“HOOT!!”_

_“HOOT!!”_

_“HOOT!!”_

_“HOOT!!”_

_“KRISTOFF!!!” the redhead yelled, stumbling her way toward him. “Care to share what the hell is happening??”_

_“I don’t know!!” Kristoff gasped, exasperated, throwing his arms to the side. They knocked into a swarm of the small… hooting_ things. _They were brown in color, small, with yellow-ish beaks and weirdly circular faces, and they floated through the air like tiny wriggling_ _bird-_ _worms. “But I’d like it if you made it stop!!”_

 _“What do you think_ I _can do about this!? I can’t just make them go away!”_

_“I don’t know, call your sister?? Can’t she, like, freeze them!? And make all our problems go away?”_

_“Are you saying you don’t think I can make these go away??” she scoffed. “Well, thank you very much, but I very much can just make them go away!” She spun on her heels, running in another direction. She jabbed her pointer finger in Kristoff’s direction. “And I’ll_ prove _it!!”_

_Kristoff stared at her, mouth agape, as she ran away. “Anna, you literally just said that you couldn’t just make them go away!!”_

_Anna returned not too long later, a piece of chocolate clenched between her teeth and both hands taught on a frying pan. Her brows were furrowed into a look of furious determination._

_“What are you gonna do with_ that!?” _Kristoff gestured wildly at the pan. “Please don’t say cook them,” he muttered under his breath._

_“No, duh,” Anna rolled her eyes. “Look, it’s better than hitting a wolf with a damn lute.”_

_“Hey!! That’s unfair. You have all these supplies—” he pointed at a suit of armor, holding a long, metal staff, that was along a nearby wall. “And you went for a frying pan!”_

_“And chocolate!!” Anna protested._

_“Yea- well what are you going to do with chocolate!?”_

_“Eat it, of course. A queen in battle needs her energy.”_

_“You’re insufferable.”_

_“NO, YOU’RE— oh_ yeah,” _she chuckled. Her weight shifted back and forth and she sunk into a crouch before taking off at something just behind Kristoff. “AAAAAAARRRRGHHHHHH!” she screamed as she swung._

_“KRIST—”_

_There was a resounding, dull '_ clang' _and Anna turned sheepishly around._

“—oof…”

_Kristoff scowled at her, his hand pressed to his face. She grinned nervously, gesturing to the hooting bird-worm things that were quickly wriggling away._

_“Hoot!!”_

_“Hootiiiiiieeee!!”_

_“Hoot!!”_

_“Well…” she began, and chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck. “At least they’re not an immediate problem anymore??”_

_Kristoff groaned._

* * *

_At the coast of a beautiful ocean shore there was a mermaid — SERIOUSLY THERE WAS A MERMAID? THOSE EXISTED? MERMAIDS WERE REAL? WHERE COULD LUZ MEET HER AND WORSHIP THE OCEAN SHE SWAM IN??? — With long flowing red hair and a tail fin in a shade of green contrasting the warm locks. She leaned forward, hovering over a girl with thick curls spread across the sand. The two of them couldn't have been much older than Luz. But the way the mermaid sang was like nothing anyone could have ever heard before. It was the most beautiful voice anyone could have ever heard._

"Where would we walk?

Where would we run?

If we could stay all day in the sun, just you and me"

_Her voice seemed to reach the human girl. Her arm shakily rose, edging so close to graze against the mermaid's much lighter skin tone, but her eyes remained closed. The voice seemed to be waking her up. But, just before the mermaid could let another note escape her, let alone before their hands could even meet, a voice was heard in the distance._

_"Moana!"_

_Gasping, the mermaid dove back into the water as quickly as she could. The girl, Moana, in the meantime let out a gasp and struggled to get up. Her head whipped back and forth. Did she not hear that beautiful merwoman singing DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF HER FACE?_ TO _HER FACE? WHAT THE HELL??_

_In the distance, the mermaid climbed onto a rock and watched as someone approached Moana to help her up, only bits and pieces of their conversation being picked up. Something about a shipwreck? Or a storm? Or something? A stammering apology followed, but Moana's mind was clearly elsewhere. And it was easy to see why when the mermaid began singing again._

"I don't know when

I don't know how

But I know something's starting right now"

_SERIOUSLY HOW THE HELL DID SHE NOT HEAR THIS GLORIOUS CREATURE??_

"Watch and you'll see

Someday I'll be

Part of y—"

"HOOT."

_Blinking, the redhead turned to the side where a single tiny Hooty was perched on a nearby rock. Unlike the other visions of Hooty Plagues where countless Hooties seemed to practically attack the poor unfortunate souls, this vision only had the one. The mermaid raised an eyebrow, confused aqua eyes meeting with blank, blinking empty ones._

_"U...uh... Hell...o?"_

_"HOOT."_

_She pulled in her lips. "Um...okay, sorry but I...okay I have no idea where you came from but I was...I was kind of in the middle of something..."_

_Hooty stared at her, making no sudden movements or hoots._

_"Okay, so...I'm just gonna..." She tried to signal like she was about to do something. Finish her moment. Do her song. Just...something._

_Baby Hooty, however, ultimately had different ideas._

_"YOUR SONG STINKS."_

_The mermaid blinked. "I'm sorry, what?"_

_"OH YEAH, YOU CAN HOOT WAAAAAAAAY BETTER THAN THAT."_

_S_ _he twisted her lips. "Okay but see, the things is...it's just...well that girl there..."_

_"TOTALLY STOLE YOUR HEART AND YOU WANNA SING TO HER TO SEE IF SHE LOVES YOU BACK SO YOU CAN KISS HER A TON AND LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER?"_

_The mermaid's face turned nearly as red as her hair. "Okay I think that's a little—"_

_"YOU REALLY WANNA WOO HER? YOU NEED TO SING MORE LIKE THIIIIIIIIS!"_

_Then, taking a deep breath in, Hooty began to sing in a tone and with hoots just as unbearable as the actual Hooty._

"I DON'T KNOW HOOT

I DON'T HOOT HOW

BUT I KNOW SOMETHING'S HOOTING RIGHT NOW

WATCH AND YOU'LL HOOT

SOMEDAY I'LL BE

PART OF YOUR HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!"

* * *

 _Their form shifted again. It was a process, a_ feeling, _that they knew well. It was like being submerged in cold-yet-pleasant water and being caught in a warm breeze all at the same time. Thirty seconds after their shape-shifting, their_ transformation, _their bending of their world and its limits, the face staring back at them from their mirror was still just..._ off. 

_It wasn't that it looked bad, it was a nice face, but it didn't embody the character they were trying to become._

_They frowned at the reflection, slightly, and it frowned back at them._

_"Not quite."_

_They snapped their fingers and let themselves float back into the void-like area, the expanse between two physical forms._

_And tried again. Really, really tried to picture the character they were going to embody. An empty shell, an appearance, and then swirling and shimmering inside were characteristics. The building blocks of that shell's personality, the building blocks of who Double Trouble was going to take on the role of—_

_And then—_

_"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!"_

_"Ugh, what's that?" they said, rubbing their eyes and slumping back into their seat, shifting back into the form they usually personified. "It's distracting, someone_ please _tell it to stop."_

_"HOOOT!!!"_

_"HOOOOOOT!!!!"_

_"HOOOTY HOOT HOOOOOT!!!!"_

_Double Trouble scoffed. "Please. It's rude to continue after someone politely asks you to stop."_

_"HOOT!!!"_

_"HOOOT!!!_

_"HOOT!!"_

_Three, small — Double trouble squinted their eyes, looking through their fingers — well... brown, wriggly, worm-like things flew... flew seemed like such a small word to describe the movements they were making._

_It was_ everything _far from eloquent, to say the least._

_They groaned. "It's been a long night. Am I just having delusions now? I can't say I'd be surprised."_

_One of the small bird-worm things grabbed their slipper off of where they had taken it off earlier in its beak._

_But not just any old, tattered, in-need of replacement anyway slipper._

_Their favorite one._

_To be fair, they had lots of favorite pairs of slippers, but yes, this one was_ definitely _their favorite._

_"Hey!!" They lunged for the slipper, but stopped short and coughed, trying to regain their composure. They chuckled dryly. "Where are my manners? Give that back, it's impolite to take things that don't belong to you."_

_One of the other bird things moved behind them._

_"HOOOOOOOOOOT!!!" it screeched into their ear. "HELLO DOUBLE TROUBLE!!! WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR A SOOOOOONG???"_

_Double Trouble swatted at the creature. "Ugh, no. Especially if it's going to be a song like that purple-haired, mustached, setting-boats-on-fire man insisted on singing."_

_"TOO BAD!! I'M SINGING YOU A SOOOOONG!!!!_

_LOVE IS AN OPEN HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!"_

_Double Trouble groaned. "Close it."_

* * *

_“Okay Maren, focus. You got this. You can do this.”_

_The brunette stared long and hard at the block of wood before her. Grasping a carving knife in her hand, she took a deep breath before whittling at it. Her eyes narrowed. She bit her bottom lip. A bead of sweat dripped down the side of her cheek. She grit her teeth. A few grunts escaped her. Tiny pieces of discarded wood flew past her almost too quickly, as if the scene were happening at hyper speed._

_Finally, she frowned._

_The wood carving was..._

_What the hell was that even?_

_Was it supposed to be a pony?_

_Or a unicorn?_

_Or a penguin?_

_Some kind of pony/unicorn/penguin hybrid?_

_Like a unponyguin or something?_

_"ARG!"_

_Maren leaned forward, clutching the questionable carving in her hand. Reluctantly, her brown eyes moved to the corner of her room. Or...tent? Wait, she didn’t look like a usual human camper._

_Oh wait!_

_Was that the Hootymaren...or, rather Maren...something-Maren...that Hooty kept referring to?_

_There were a number of other discarded items. Things that looked sewed, like a scarf of some sort; something on a canvas like a painting; a...was that a demented penguin plush? Yeesh._

_“Who am I kidding? None of these are good enough for Elsa’s birthday,” Maren sighed. She scoffed and muttered to herself, “She can make these incredible ice sculptures and I can’t even carve a damn Nokk without making it look like an ass.”_

_“THAT SOUNDS REALLY DEPROOSING.”_

_The voice came from off-screen and sounded all too familiar, but Maren didn’t seem to think too much of it right away._

_"It’s just that it’s her first birthday here...with_ me _...and I just really want to….”_

_Maren’s voice faded. Her brows furrowed and she steadily shifted her gaze to look back at the carving in her hand._

_Oh, it was still partially there._

_Along with something semi-attached to it._

_Particularly, a tiny Hooty head._

_“SOUNDS LIKE SOMEHOOTY REALLY WANTS TO KISS HER A LOOOOOT.”_

_“HOLY SHIT!!”_

_Maren threw the carving — along with baby Hooty — across to the other side, resulting in what sounded like something shattering followed by a rather ear-piercing ‘OW!’. Maren winced at it, though her reaction disappeared rather quickly. A flap was heard, as if someone was entering. Gasping, Maren turned her head to see who entered. Her eyes widened as someone that could only be described as a blonde goddess rushed in._

_“Maren are you alright?” she breathed. “I, I heard you scream...and, and then something broke…. What...what happened? Are you okay?” In the same breath she shook her head and a blush flooded her ivory cheeks. “O...of course you’re okay, I literally just asked that a second ago and you’re sitting right in front of me, you wouldn’t be if you weren’t...that is...wh...what I mean to say is—”_

_“I’M FINE!” Maren exclaimed, jumping to her feet. When a blush covered her cheeks as well, she cleared her throat. “I...I mean, I’m, I’m ok.”_

_“Are...are you sure? I...I can take you to the healer. Or...or do you need an ice pack? Or...or just ice? I, I can freeze something right away-” she stammered. The blonde struggled to not only form cohesive words but also fiddled with her hands and arms as if she were unsure where to put them or what to do with them. If she should reach out to Maren or if she should back off or if she should do something more like touch her cheek or her hair…._

_Not that anyone would blame her; Maren’s hair looked so soft and luscious. Not to mention her cheekbones right under those almost caramel chocolatey eyes of hers. Who wouldn’t want any of that?_

_“Elsa….” Maren lifted her hand, fingers briefly brushing against Elsa’s and seeming to grip the edges of them in the lightest manner possible. It almost matched the soft, warm, loving look she sent the blonde’s way. “I’m fine, I promise.”_

_A pause followed as Elsa took in Maren’s words. A faint blush remained on her cheeks, though nowhere near as bad as a moment ago. Exhaling, Elsa’s shoulders relaxed and the smallest smile crossed her face as she accepted the tiny embrace from Maren._

_“ISN’T ANYHOOT GONNA ASK IF I’M OKAY?”_

_The screech echoed from the other side, interrupting what would have otherwise been an incredibly sweet moment between two…._

_Girlfriends?_

_Not-so-platonic-friends?_

_Partners?_

_Super-really-close-friend people?_

_Who also happened to be super attractive and probably really into each other?_

_“Wait…” Elsa brows furrowed in a combination of confusion and fear, “what was that…?”_

_The two of them slowly turned their heads to the mini Hooty._

_"HOOTYMAREN FLEW MEEEEE!”_

_Maren narrowed her gaze. “Don’t you mean 'threw'?” she muttered._

_“_ _NOPE.”_

_A cracking in the background indicated the sudden appearance of ice._

_“Uh…. M...Maren…” Elsa gulped, “wh...what is...why is...how did…?”_

_Before Maren could utter another syllable, Hooty spoke again with the biggest — and creepiest — smile possible._

_“I’M BABY HOOTY! AND NOW YOU’RE MY HOOTMAMAS!”_

* * *

_A woman with hair as red as the mermaid's had been, but this time it was curly, sat at a table, eating a handful of cookies with furious determination._

_A 'hoot' sounded from the distance, muffled slightly by the walls and space between them, and even still it was quite loud._

_The redhead furrowed her brows and stood up, grabbing a bow and a quiver full of arrows off the near wall._

_The 'hoots' continued, and she edged her way slowly out of the castle and into the surrounding forest. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed thickly, moving lightly on her feet into a clearing. She quietly took an arrow from her quiver and nocked it into her bow and held the weapon in front of her. She stepped backwards a few short steps, her eyes darting side to side. A dark green gown swished down around her feet as she moved. Surrounding her was a forest of thick trees, and above her was a dense, dark green canopy of leaves. "Alright," she spoke in a distinct. "I hear you, come out wherever you are. Or—" she paused and it almost seemed as if for dramatic effect, "—I've got a bow, and I've never been known to miss." She shrugged to the left side with a little chuckle. "Except a lot of family time, according to my mom, who thinks she knows everything—" The woman shook her head furiously before focusing straight ahead of her again. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "But whatever you are—"_

_With a chorus of 'HOOOOOT!!!'s what was probably the most amount of the baby Hooties stampeded through the trees._

_The woman gasped and, after a quick turn to the right, let the arrow that was nocked to her bow fly. It split through the air with a snap. Immediately following that one, she let three more fly._

_"HOOOT!!"_

_"HOOOT!!"_

_"HOOOT!!"_

_The baby Hooties let out high-pitched hoots as they evaded the flying arrows, shooting up into the air, and down again, and then back up in a nauseatingly fast pace._

_"What the hell are you wee beastly things?" The red-haired woman screeched as she let another few arrows fly._

_The baby Hooties continued to evade them._

_"Where did you come from?? And—" she grunted "—why aren't you going away!? You should be afraid of me, I got a big scary weapon and you—" She grimaced, dropping her guard for a few seconds. "Wait, what the hell are you anyway? UGH! Whatever! You're weird, that's for sure. Now get out of he—"_

_She choked on the rest of her sentence as the baby Hooties swarmed her, knocking her into the ground, resulting in what sounded like her mumbling something very obscene and unladylike in her native tongue._

* * *

Eda frowned, muttering to herself. "It wasn't supposed to go into other realms..."

King looked down at the cooling green liquid in the cauldron, watching with a malicious grin as the smoke dissipated. "Oh boy, Eda," he chuckled darkly. "You're _scarring_ everyone this year!!" Eda rolled her eyes, putting the lid back on the cauldron. 

"Well, I dunno about everyone, but a handful of juveniles will be scarred—" 

"FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIIIIIVES!!!!" King interjected. He threw his short paws in the air. In his mind, he probably envisioned himself as some huge, scary, intimidating monster, but in reality, it was just adorable. 

"—or at least a few months," Luz interjected, easing herself into the conversation. 

"Well," Eda sighed, leaning on the cauldron. It swayed with her weight and Willow side-eyed it nervously. "Now that _that's_ done with!!" She stretched. "It is time to light the candles!!!" 

Eda took down a gnarled menorah. It at first appeared to look like any typical human menorah if not almost similar to a candelabra, gold in color and glistening under the living room lights. Luz couldn't help but clap her hands together and let out an 'aw' at how cute it looked. That is, until Eda turned it upside down and pressed a button underneath. She set it down where it was supposed to go and, for a few seconds, nothing happened. Suddenly, the handle began to sink. It steadily grew pudgier, almost like a belly bursting out from eating so much gelt. The gold hue of the menorah quickly darkened into an almost pitch black shade. The holders on top of the candles sunk down and began twisting, crawling across the table and almost shifting from a simple oval shape into something more resembling tentacles. They spread out across, almost covering the table entirely. The tentacle-holders slowly inched up, the very edges twirling around in a swivel motion. The one in the center rose above the rest but, instead of the edge of the tentacle swirling like the rest, it very briefly created the shape of a mouth, letting out a devilish 'muahahahahahahahahaha' before tilting forward. From the edge of the tentacle appeared a desaturated yellow shell with a dreidel on it. It then wrapped around the center tentacle holder, almost like a necklace, before slipping towards the middle of the strange menorah. Finally, the middle tentacle holder completed its transformation, the tip swiveling around and preparing to take the candle in its grasp from Eda.

"Oh boy, oh boy!!" Gus hopped on one foot, watching eagerly as Eda pulled two candles out of a box. "Can I lead the prayer, pleeeeaaase??" 

"Sure, kid," Eda said, rolling her eyes. Luz craned her neck to see the candles as she placed them into the menorah, one on the far right and one in the center, in the holder that was raised just over the others. They were brown, and at the top, they looked like Hooty's face. However, instead of a beak, the candle's wicks were orange. 

"Cute," she forced through clenched teeth. Hooty wormed his way next to her, poking his cold beak into the crook of her neck. 

"THOSE ARE THE HOOOTLES!!! THEY LOOK JUUUUUUST LIKE MEEEEEEE, DON'T THEY!?!?!?!" 

Eda created a small fire spell in front of the centered candle and set it alight. Gus clamored to get to it, and grasped the candle between his fingers. 

"THAT'S THE SHAMMHOOT!" Hooty whispered — or what he thought was a whisper — into Luz's ear. As Gus lifted the candle, everyone around Luz broke into song.

One voice rose above the rest, though, and by all unfortunate means, it was Hooty's.

"BarHOOT atah, AdonHOOT EloHOOTnu, Melech HOOTlam, asHOOT kid’shanHOOT b’mitzvHOOTav v’tsivanHOOT l’HOOTlik ner shel _CHOOTYKKAH!!!!"_

Eda sighed. "Scram, Hooty." 

"Wow," Luz whispered, enamored by the sparkling glow of the candles. "They're so pretty!!" 

"Yeah," Amity agreed quietly. The candlelight glowed in her eyes, which crinkled at the corners ever so slightly into a smile. "They are." 

"Well!!" Eda clapped her hands. "Now, I believe, it is time for me to beat all you poor saps in a game of dreidel!!" 

"Don't be so sure about that," King replied with a light snark to his voice. He tossed a coin in the air. "I'm gonna be rich by the end of tonight!!! RICH, I SAY!!! RIIIIICH!!!!! Well, in chocolate, but still. RIIIIIIIIICH!!!!!!" 

Luz scoffed. "Don't be so sure, the both of you. Have you forgotten about me, LUZAURA, witch of all trades??" 

Amity turned to Luz, her face slack. "You've never played before," she muttered, deadpan. 

"Yeah, well, so, it's a spinning top with some letters!!!" Luz shot back at her. "How hard can it be!?"

* * *

Eda tossed a coin in the air, the aluminum glinting as the light of the candles reflected off of it. Luz stared down at her nonexistent pile of gelt, which was hardly better than Amity, who was running second place with a measly count of two pieces of chocolate. "I can't believe it," Amity said, her voice breathy. "I _always_ beat Ed and Em in dreidel, _always._ " 

"Tough luck, kid," Eda laughed, devoid of emotion. Her pile of gelt towered far over everyone else's — three of whose were empty. King had been eliminated first, and he hadn't taken kindly to that. 

"Stupid shin, stupid game, stupid rigged dreidel falling on shin!!!" he'd muttered, loudly, as he walked away, kicking a crumpled up piece of foil. 

The dreidel swirled on the table once more, Amity having spun it. She looked at the wooden toy greedily. There were only three pieces of gelt in the center, but spinning a gimel would give her an advantage she wouldn't have otherwise. 

The dreidel wobbled as its momentum slowed. 

Amity bit her lip in concentration as she watched it fall to the table with a thud. 

"Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!" she moaned, falling into her seat. "Damn it. Shin." Annoyed, she flicked a coin into the center of the table, watching it glide with a glare. "Maybe King's right," she muttered, glowering at the dreidel as Luz picked it up. "It's probably rigged." 

Luz scoffed. "Sure. Never thought've you as a sore loser, Amity," she teased. "But maybe I was wrong. Maybe I need to rethink my whole view of you." 

"Shut your face," Amity hissed.

Luz spun a nun, and the dreidel passed to Eda. She grinned at it, her gold tooth flashing. 

Everyone waited in tense silence as it spun. 

And wobbled. 

And fell. 

Onto a character that Luz would have described as 'looking like a person with no head or arms, just legs and hair'. 

Gimel. 

Eda laughed greedily, adding the four pieces of gelt to her pile. Amity scowled at her, and fiddled with her one remaining piece between her fingers.

The dreidel passed around the circle once more, falling on a nun for Gus and then a second nun for Willow. Finally it passed back to Amity. 

"Come on Amity. You're not a loser," she whispered to herself. "And you're gonna win this damn game..." She looked down at the coin in her hands. "...somehow." 

She spun the dreidel. "Ooh," Luz whimpered in sympathy. "You spun the weird looking 'W' thing again, huh?" 

"It's _shin,"_ Amity seethed as she sank slowly into her chair. "And with it goes my chances of winning." 

"Well y-y-you never know!" Luz tried to comfort her. "What if Eda spins the weird 'W' and then..." She gulped under Amity's glare that was sent her way. "An-and then you-you spin the give me one!! That guy with just hair, or maybe it's toothpaste, actually? Kinda looks like too— okay, yeah, I'll shut up now." 

"It's _gimel."_

Luz could practically see the smoke pouring from Amity's nose as she tossed her final coin back into the center.

Luz spun a shin, which eliminated her from the game. Amity let a cheer escape when Luz pulled her chair away from the table, quickly covering it up with a 'sorry.' 

"You really wanted me to lose, huh?" Luz teased. 

"No!! No, no, no," Amity laughed nervously. "It's just that I— you see, I— if you lose, then that's one less person I'm up against, and then that means that I have a higher chance of winning, see, before it was 1/5 chance and now it— it's 1/4!!!! And that's better, you see, because that—" Amity's face was bright red. She took a deep breath. "Whoo. Almost passed out." 

Eda spun a nun and breathed a sigh of relief of having not gotten shin. Gus and Willow, however, were not so lucky. Both spun shins which eliminated them from the game. 

"Willow! Gus!!" Luz waved them over to where she had pulled her chair, just behind Amity and Eda. The former of which stared at the latter with a low scowl, her brows furrowed determinedly as she spun the dreidel. 

Willow, Gus, and Luz leaned forward in anticipation. Amity's fingers were crossed under the table. Eda sat picking dirt out of her hair, and Luz was sure she couldn't have looked _any_ more nonchalant. 

The second the dreidel thudded to the table, though, she shot forward to look at what it had landed on. 

While Amity's face twisted into a look of anger, annoyance, and sorrow, Eda's twisted into a wicked smile. 

If Luz were interested, at all, in provoking Amity any more, she would have said some stupid thing about the weird looking W. However, Amity looked like she would have blown Luz's ears off if she had done that, so Luz bit her tongue and kept quiet. 

"HAH!!!" Eda yelled, grabbing the single piece of gelt and dropping it in her enormous pile. "I WON!" She jabbed her finger at King, who was sobbing in the corner. Where he had been alternating from sobbing, yelling in fury, and scheming for 'how he was going to win dreidel back from Eda, legally or illegally' for the past half hour.

"I WON AND YOU SUCKERS LOST!!!" Eda danced around. "KING YOU HEAR THAT!?!?!??! I. WON. HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAH!!!!!!!!"

"It's not faiiir," King weeped. 

"Oh it's _plenty_ fair," Eda blew a raspberry at King from around a mouthful of chocolate. 

"No it's not!!" King sobbed. "Y-you _stole_ the game from me!!!" 

Luz shook her head and walked up to Amity, who was clearly very interested in the wall. "You good?" 

Amity scoffed. "I can't believe I lost. I _always_ beat Ed and Em in dreidel, _always."_

"Y-yeah." Luz rubbed her elbow. "You said that earlier. Is there anything I can do to make the...uh...pain of..." 

Amity's glare shut her down. 

"—Of n-not— uh— living up to your goal?? Less?? Painful???" she stuttered. 

Amity rolled her eyes. "You're an idiot, you know that?" 

"You love me." 

"Maybe." 

"Oh you know it," Luz teased. Eyeing Eda, who was on the other side of the room taunting King, she swiped a couple of chocolate gelt out of Eda's pile. "Here," she said, handing them to Amity. "Don't tell Eda."

Amity rolled her eyes, but accepted the pieces of chocolate. 

"Thanks, Luz," she said gently and after a brief moment of hesitation, leaned forward and planted a light kiss on Luz's cheek. 

And then, almost as fast as it happened, she pulled away, face bright red, and walked quickly over to the menorah, leaving Luz dazed behind her.

* * *

A wisp of smoke drifted through the room, floating upward, as a candle on the menorah went out. It was the shammash that had gone out, which Luz supposed made sense, seeing as it was the first candle to have gone out. There was still a small flame remaining on the other candle, but Luz was sure it wasn’t going to last much longer. 

Amity watched the smoke dance to the ceiling from her place in front of the menorah as if in a trance. It hadn’t been that long since…

Well.

Luz wasn’t sure she even knew what had happened. Had it even happened?

The world had tilted a little when Amity’s lips had met her cheek and it hadn’t straightened out since then. The sky outside was littered with thousands of twinkling stars, and they matched the empty static that Luz’s brain had been reduced to.

And the way _it_ had felt. 

The way _she_ had felt. 

The way she would have so willingly reached out and grabbed Amity’s hand and held her there, held her there forever, if her head hadn’t been so lost in the clouds. Or the stars, maybe; _star-struck._

Amity’s cheeks were still red, and she refused to face Luz. It wasn’t like Luz had put up much of an effort, she was still trying to process everything herself.

“A—” she began, trying to sound big, courageous, but her voice caught in her throat and she had to start again. “Amity.”

She swallowed thickly and sat down next to her. 

“Hi.” 

Amity let out a soft chuckle. She slowly turned around, and when she did, her face _was_ still pink, and her lip was caught between her teeth. She looked nervous. “Hey.” She closed her eyes and took a breath. “Sorry about that, I—” she stopped. “I don’t even know.” 

“No,” Luz breathed. “No. No. Don’t be sorry. Please. It was…” she smiled and gently rested her hand over Amity’s. “It was nice. Thank you. That sounds weird, me thanking you for you kissing me. But I guess what I’m trying to say is that, I...” she paused. “I don’t even know either. But such is life, isn’t it? Constant not-knowing, but figuring it out anyway.” 

“I’ve never known,” Amity lamented. “And I’d say that I think I’ve done a rather bad job of figuring it all out, but you’re here, and that’s one thing I’d say I did a _good_ job of figuring out.” 

“Yeah,” Luz agreed. “Yeah.” 

They sat in comfortable silence for what felt like an eternity, just the two of them, but in reality, it was probably less than a minute and Gus and Willow were arguing over who got the last latke not too far away so it wasn’t really even silence either. 

But whatever it was, between them, it was nice.

At least, until Eda broke it. 

In the best possible way, Luz couldn’t argue.

“Alright!!” Eda clapped her hands. “Time to open presents!!”

King had been crumpling up foil from chocolate gelt that he’d stolen from Eda and planting it all around the house in hopes that Eda would slip on some and see that he wasn’t going to stand for the injustice of her having rigged the dreidel game against him. Or so he was muttering to himself. But the second he heard the word ‘presents’ he clamored into the room. 

“Look who’s excited for the presents,” Eda laughed, heading just out of the room to gather the presents. 

“Excited?” King exhaled heavily. “Me? Nah.” He straightened an imaginary bowtie. “I’m waiting in _average_ anticipation. This King of Demons doesn’t get excited for something as trivial as—"

His eyes widened, his pupils big and dark and sparkly, when he saw Eda returning, her arms piled high with wrapped gifts.

_“—presents.”_

“Alright, who wants to get the first present of this year’s Chanukkah?” Eda looked pointedly at King. 

“Oh _boy!!”_ the little demon squealed, jumping up and down. “Me!!!! Me!! Me!!!!” 

“Average anticipation, I see,” Luz teased him. 

“What do you mean??” King squeaked. “This is average anticipation!! Very _much_ average, in fact!!” 

“Alright, King, then.” Eda’s gaze scanned the small crowd. “And don’t worry the three of yourselves,” she said to Amity, Willow, and Gus, who were looking like they felt a little out-of-place. “You think I would invite you here and then not get you guys anything? Consider it a ‘happy Chanukkah, thanks for getting this kid” —she shot a playful glance at Luz— “off of my hands for a few hours of the day’ gift.” 

King’s gift was wrapped in blue and white wrapping paper with golden menorahs and white Stars of David on it, and he tore it off almost before it even touched his paws. 

Resting inside the now-ripped-to-shreds wrapping paper was a brown teddy bear with a golden, plush crown sitting upon its head. King’s eyes widened in adoration and he hugged the toy to his chest as tightly as he could, before remembering that everyone was watching him and dropping it to his side. “It’s okay, I guess,” he muttered. 

Eda gave Amity an old grudgby jacket of hers, Willow a collection of plants she had given up on watering and decided to donate to a better cause, and Gus a bunch of junk she’d collected through the years of dumpster-diving in the human realm. 

And she handed Luz a squishy, square-shaped gift wrapped in the same wrapping paper as King’s had been. 

“Go on, open it,” Eda said, looking proud. 

Luz tore off the wrapping paper in an only-slightly less-chaotic way than King had. 

There were larger pieces left than the tiny confetti-sized scraps that King had torn his up into, at least. 

Luz pulled out a blanket from inside. It was striped, blue and white, which Luz had noticed seemed to be a common theme for Chanukkah celebrations. When she unfolded it all the way, she saw that there was a menorah with candles in all nine of the holders on the front of it. 

When she touched the blanket, the flames lit up. 

But they weren’t hot — no, just an illusion. It was probably spelled. 

But the fire made it look really cool. 

“Ooh,” she murmured. “It’s wonderful."

Eda snickered. 

“Wait for it,” she said, with a snark in her tone. 

“Should I be worried?” Amity asked, looking rather distressed. “It’s not gonna like, blow up on her, right?”

Luz shrieked. 

“You think I’d give Luz a blanket that was going to blow up on her?” Eda asked. She didn’t sound offended, just like she was playing. 

Amity scoffed. “Noo… but, you— you never _know…”_

Everyone watched the blanket tensely. 

And the illusion-flames flickered, three seconds before—

“HOOTDEL, HOOTDEL, HOOTDEL, I MADE IT OUT OF HOOT, AND WHEN IT’S HOOT AND HOOTY OH HOOTDEL I WILL HOOOOOT!!!!!! CHOOTYKKAH OH CHOOTYKKAH, COME—” 

Luz wasn’t sure what was the worst, or maybe best part of the blanket — the fire, the song, or that it sounded like Hooty, and how that pissed Amity off in a really adorable way.

Amity was probably redder than a tomato, and her fists were clenched so hard her knuckles were white, and she looked really, really, really mad. 

Eda burst into laughter. “Wait, wait, it’s not—” she broke off, laughing too hard to continue.

“OOOH WHAT DO WE HAVE HEEERE?” The blanket continued, still talking like Hooty, which Luz found very creepy, for the record. “IS IT TWO HOOOTFRIENDS NAMED HOOTYMITY AND LUUUUUUUZ??” 

“Shut. Up,” Amity growled. She looked ready to tear the blanket to bits.

Gus was too fascinated by the things that Eda had gotten him to notice the chaos that was unfolding, and Willow was scowling half-heartedly. 

Luz groaned and her head fell to her lap.

“Thanks, Eda,” she said sarcastically, but meant it with all her heart. 

* * *

As the night — and the incessant singing of the blanket — finally slowed down, Luz found herself relaxing and reveling in the events of her first official holiday on the Boiling Isles.

"This is the best first Chanukkah ever!" Luz grinned, hugging her new blanket close to her.

"Well I dunno about the best _first_ Chanukkah but I guess this one wasn't so bad," Eda thought aloud. Standing up, she stretched her arms and cracked her knuckles. "Alright, I think that's everything for tonight. We stuffed our faces, chanted the songs, I continued my winning streak of stealing all the gelt from you poor saps—"

"Hey!" Gus and Willow gasped in unison.

"Hey, it was a good effort, you dweebuses," Eda teased. She rubbed Gus's head jokingly before standing straight and putting her hands on her hips. "And everyone got their gifts. So we might as well call it a night and—"

"HEEEEEEEEEY! WHAT ABOUT MEEEEEEEEEE?" Hooty gasped, flinging the door open and squirming into the house. "WHERE'S MYYYYYYYY GIFT?"

Eda blinked. "Your what now?"

"Eda! You didn't get Hooty a gift?" Luz gasped.

The owl lady threw her arms in the air exasperated. "You were just complaining this morning about how annoying he was!"

"Well yeah, Hooty's a pain sometimes...a lot of the time...most of the time...almost all the time...okay pretty much the entirety of the time we've ever remotely known him for," Luz admitted.

"HEEEEEEEEY!" Hooty exclaimed.

The teen shrugged. "But he should still get a gift. It doesn't mean he should be left out."

Eda groaned and face palmed. "Do you really gotta be all sunshine and happy times?"

A huge smile crossed Luz's face. She clutched her fists under her chin and she leaned forward in anticipation, sparkles, stars, and bright colors completely surrounding her.

"Ugh, darn lights on the fritz again," Eda mumbled. Snapping her fingers, the bright lights and sparkles suddenly disappeared from around Luz.

Her all-too happy face, however, remained just the same.

"You know you're really gonna send me down under one day, kid," Eda commented. "Alright, fine, let me see what I can conjure up here."

Holding up her finger, she created a circle in front of her. A small puff of smoke appeared, almost in the shape of a book. Eda flipped through it, as if to get some ideas for the owl demon. "Too expensive... Too stupid... Too much work... Too much reading... Too expensive... Too King-y..." Shaking her head, she magicked the smoke book away before rubbing her temples. She muttered a 'let me think'. She remained in that position for a minute or two before she snapped her fingers, recalling something Hooty said earlier that day about his friends. "Got it! I'm a total genius!" she grinned.

With another wave of her finger, a new circle appeared. This time, after a puff of periwinkle smoke, appeared two small figurines. One had long dark hair tied back in a braid with bright honey-colored eyes and the other, long flowing platinum blonde hair and appeared almost as pale as snow. They almost resembled the two women from one of the plagues, but in tiny chibi doll forms. Though the small semi-familiar figurines confused the young witches, Hooty lit up immediately.

"OH HOOOOOOOOOOT!" he exclaimed. He wrapped his wormy body around the figures, hugging them close to him. "IT'S MY NEW FRIENDS! OH I LOVE THEM SO MUCH I CAN'T WAIT TO HOOT SOME NEW ADVENTURES WITH THEM AND DO ALL THE GANG THINGS I WANTED TO AND START THAT BOOK CLUB AND SING THOSE SONGS... THEY CAN FINALLY SING LOVE IS AN OPEN HOOT TOGETHER! OH IT'LL BE JUST LIKE THEY'RE REALLY HERE! MY BEST FRIENDS WHO ARE ALSO HOOTFRIENDS FOREVER AND EVER AND EEEEEEEEEEEEVER!" He hugged them as tight as they possibly could, their plastic eyes almost completely bugling out of their bodies. "THEY'RE MY BESTHOOTEST FRIENDS AND I LOVE THEM."

"Hey!" Gus exclaimed. "I thought I was your _besthootest_ friend!!"

"NO!!!" Hooty sang, still squeezing the figurines. "YOU'RE A NOBODY COMPARED TO MY BESTHOOTEST FRIENDS HOOTSA AND HOOTYMAREN!!!"

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere far away from the Boiling Isles in the human world...

"Oh, spirits!"

Elsa jolted up from her bed with wide eyes, chest moving up and down rapidly. She placed a hand over her heart, silently begging for it to calm down. It worked to little avail and she could already feel the furs beneath her icing over. She took multiple deep breaths in an attempt to slow her breathing. It wasn't until a familiar sound at the bed beside her brought a remote sense of ease to the blonde.

"Hmhmmm...?"

Honeymaren stirred slightly. She turned onto her side, facing Elsa's direction. Her eyes fluttered open, though she remained lying down for the moment. As her vision from a deep sleep returned to her, she saw the glow of the ethereal beauty that was the Snow Queen close to her. She couldn't help but smile watching her and, for a moment, allowed herself to take in the view.

That, and she was too lazy and tired to push the messy bangs away from her face to fully take in and appreciate the sight.

When she finally took notice of Elsa's distress, Honeymaren's brows furrowed. She reached across the minimal space between their two furs and placed her hand beside Elsa, close enough for her to reach out if she desired yet not making contact first without her permission. Even a sleep-deprived Honeymaren knew that.

"Elsa...? You okay?"

Elsa's breath hitched briefly. Fully registering Honeymaren's voice, Elsa let out a sigh and shook her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's fine," she promised. She kept her eyes up at her, honey-coated eyes full of concern. "What happened?"

Elsa shook her head. "I...I just had a nightmare, I think..." she confessed. Nightmares were not uncommon for Elsa, though this one was particularly unique from the rest. She let out another breath and removed her hand from her chest, beginning to twist and tilt it in an odd motion with her other hand as if she struggled to explain what she saw. "You...you were working on..." Oh, but how silly it would be for Elsa to confess she dreamed about the countless attempts Honeymaren had made on creating a birthday gift just for her. She should leave that out. "And...and suddenly this, this tiny owl head," she paused to shudder, " _hooted_ out of nowhere. I, I came rushing in and, and you were okay but the owl, he... He wouldn't leave us alone and he kept calling us..." His... _hootmamas_ sounded so terribly wrong! But, then again, simply saying he had called them his mamas made it no better. In fact, it made it all the more terrifying. No...not terrifying. But...also yes. Because hoots. Elsa shook her head. "An...anyway, then we were tiny and we were in front of him again but he, he was _huge_ and we were so small and squishy and he just..."

She lowered her arms in defeat. It was pointless trying to properly explain it. Nor was it worth waking Honeymaren over.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't—" she started.

"Hey, hey," she replied calmly. Honeymaren shuffled for a moment, forcing herself to sit up. She moved too quickly, feeling lightheaded as a result. Or maybe it was something else. She shook her head. "It was just a nightmare. I'm sure it was nothing."

It always was, wasn't it? But then again, Elsa never had anything to worry about with Honeymaren by her side. She'd been with her through so much in such a short time already, hadn't she? But as quickly as Elsa felt a smile crossing her lips, it faded. "It's just... Normally when I have nightmares it's about my powers, but this... It was so specific. And this, this...owl thing who had the pitchiest voice and kept..." she furrowed her brows, "kept saying 'hoot' all the time..."

Maren blinked, finally realizing something. "Wait... You're not talking about Hooty, are you?"

Elsa's eyes widened.

Oh.

Oh shit.

"H...how do—"

"I mean who else would it be?" Maren asked as-a-matter-of-factly.

"So...so it wasn't..." she started to ask.

Honeymaren gently placed her hand on Elsa's bare shoulder. She kept her touch light at first, careful not to scar her more than she already was. She waited for that silent moment of permission where she could secure her grasp, letting Elsa know that she was there and everything was fine. "This time, maybe. But it was months ago. And...yeah, it was creepy as hell. Maybe you were just thinking about him because of that bird we ate tonight. Or it didn't agree with you. But...but he's not here now. It's just me."

Just Honeymaren.

She said it so simply but...

Elsa felt her heart rate finally steady.

Just Honeymaren.

That was perhaps the one part that didn't make it feel like a nightmare.

Even if Hooty himself was the manifestation of one, there was still one shining light that came from it.

Her not-so-platonic-anymore friend.

A faint blush crept onto Elsa's cheeks, accompanied by the softest of smiles recalling the end of that afternoon.

That really did happen, didn't it? The kiss...

Elsa felt her arm rise and move across her chest, her pale hand gently resting on top of Honeymaren's. This was real. She was real. _They_ were real.

And, even if Hooty had been real, it wasn't as if he were going to return to haunt them with his hoots and hooty tunes any times soon. That would truly be a terror. But he didn't. He wasn't. No high-pitched hoots. No horrible out-of-key songs. Not hoot after hoot. Just the calm spirits. Just the sounds of nature. Just the warmth of the goahti. Just Honeymaren and her sweet, soft, voice.

She always knew how to make Elsa feel better, didn't she?

"Thank you, Honey."

"Always," she smiled. She leaned forward, pecking Elsa's cheek softly. "Go back to sleep. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow." Slipping her hand out of Elsa's hold, Honeymaren returned to her bed and proceeded to fall back to sleep rather easily.

Elsa, on the other hand, took a few extra minutes to watch her not-so-platonic friend. Then she stared up at the tent top and allowed herself to float back down onto her furs. A lot of work. Spirits. Reindeer herding. Fishing. Cleaning up after Bruni and his little accidental fire pits. Weekly letter to her sister. No owls. No hoots. No Hooty Worms. No Love is an Open Hoot. And especially no Hooty or...ugh...Hooty babies. Letting out a content sigh, Elsa closed her eyes.

Just a dream.

No Hooty.

"HOOTY HOOT HOOT! CHAPPY CHOOTYKKAH!!!!"

...Or maybe not.

**THE END**

**Author's Note:**

> Spoiler - it's not the end. Not if you wanna read more about the Ten Plagues of Hooty!


End file.
